To improve American education, there must be improved ongoing professional development for teachers and a national plan for helping teachers fulfill their untapped potential. Research shows that quality professional development can improve student achievement. Teachers report that professional development improves their teaching. Despite this, the…

Cases study uses structured interviews, field observations, document and artifact analysis, focus groups, and member checks to identify "teachable" (transferable) elements of the "beyond expectations" successful instructional program at a K-5 school in North Carolina. Finds that the school achieved success by enacting a…

Describes one elementary school's success in improving student achievement, focusing on three critical elements of its Professional Development School: teacher collaboration, partnerships between the home and school, and an emphasis on improved academic achievement. This PDS constantly uses reflection and analysis to look at the future, viewing…

When they are well-devised and implemented, academic standards, tests, and associated accountability provisions can change the nature of teaching and learning. They can lead to a richer, more challenging curriculum, foster teacher collaboration, create a more productive teacher/parent dialogue, and focus attention on student achievement. (MLH)

Profound change in school begins with profound change in leaders that radiates to others and into the system. Profound change requires more than structural change--it requires changing the brains of teachers and administrators. Creating such change requires that leaders think, speak, and act differently on a daily basis, clarifying their ideas and…

Thinking Together is a project that began at the Open University in the mid 1990s and grew out of research that showed that children benefit from explicit instruction on how to talk in groups. Its fundamental premise is that the ability to communicate effectively is a key skill that lies at the heart of educational success. A crucial goal arising…

Our children deserve an education that fully prepares them for the future--success in college, the workforce and a healthy, fulfilled life. The Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time (ELT) Initiative is redesigning and expanding the school schedule to offer children new learning and enrichment opportunities. With state resources, participating…

Under the leadership of State Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum, with the support of the South Carolina Department of Education's Division of Teaching Quality (DTQ) and the South Carolina Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement (CERRA), South Carolina became only the second state in the nation to study teacher…

This evaluation report summarizes Year 4 of the Math and Science Academy (MSA), an initiative of the Northern New Mexico Council on Excellence in Education (NNMCEE). The report begins with an overview of the project and its objectives, and then outlines the research questions and methods used to carry out the evaluation. Findings from the Year 4…

This publication presents information from an April 1999 meeting of the National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching and Learning and the Learning First Alliance, which brought together representatives of schools and districts where outstanding faculty development was underway. This guide presents the story that these…

Presents strategies from six schools and two districts that won this year's U.S. Department of Education Model Professional Development Awards. Some of their strategies include teacher collaboration to plan professional development; teachers as leaders of learning for themselves and their peers; external partners providing expertise and resources;…

Reforming traditional practice has proven to be a difficult and controversial task in the field of education. If a change to the school's organizational structure is not implemented in the appropriate manner, it can severely damage the reputation of the leadership team and possibly cost the administrator his or her job. Considering the possible…

When teachers at Madison Elementary School in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin attended a class to examine test data, they started a change process that led the whole school to learn differently--from teachers to students. This article discusses on how whole-faculty study teams have created stronger professional connections and collaboration between teachers…

Because federal law offers little guidance for continually-failing schools, the Center on Education Policy (CEP) conducted a study from August 2006 to January 2007 in Michigan to explore questions of what happens after restructuring, particularly to schools that continue to fail to meet achievement targets. Because it had an accountability system…

Narrowing the achievement gap between students who are native English speakers and those learning English as a second language is one of the biggest challenges facing U.S. educators. This article discusses the approaches used by the Saint Paul (Minn.) Public Schools in narrowing this achievement gap. Saint Paul (Minn.) Public Schools has one of…